A Remnant of the Past
by zeusfluff
Summary: While cleaning out her side of the closet, Troi finds something that belonged to her son Ian. "We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." "No, I think it's time I did."
1. Chapter 1: A Remnant of the Past

**A Remnant of the Past**

Author: ZeusFluff.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Star Trek characters. But I do own Riker and Troi's unborn daughter Susan. Date Started: 11/23/14. Date Finished: 11/25/14. Hope you will all enjoy! Thanks! Summary: While cleaning out her closet, Troi finds something that belonged to her son Ian. "We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." "No, I think it's time I did."

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><p>The closet was cluttered. Deanna knew that. She'd organized her and Will's closet several times over the last few months. Riker had put it under the category of 'nesting.' Clearing some space at the bottom of the closet, she came across a container she hadn't touched in years. Fingering the box gently, she let her thoughts wander. She knew what was in it. Troi hadn't noticed Will standing behind her until she felt his breath on the back of her neck. She could hear the smile in his voice. It wrapped around her like an invisible blanket.<p>

"What's in the box? Some stuff from your childhood I don't know about?"

Troi moved slightly so that Will could see the container. When he saw Ian's name written on it in a child's handwriting, he immediately felt apologetic.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know the container belonged to Ian. We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

Deanna sat for a moment and fingered the container a bit longer before answering her husband.

"No I think it's time I did. Susan needs to know what her big brother was like. I'm not going to leave her in the dark about him. Not like mother did with my sister Kestra. It's funny, I remember when I let Ian write his name on this container with a royal blue crayon."

Will took a seat next to his wife and crossed his legs. Grabbing for her hand, he gave a warm and supportive smile. He let her continue, without being overbearing. As sometimes he was.

"I remember as clear as day when he was born and thinking to myself: 'giving birth is supposed to be painful, and yet, I don't feel any pain at all.' Then I heard his first scream and then he started crying. Honestly, I did want you in the room with me, I was scared, but I was already on my way to Sickbay and Data just happened to be walking past me. Not two minutes before my water broke."

Will pulled his wife in closer and kissed her forehead. She wished her emotions weren't all over the map. She felt more vulnerable than normal.

"Well I'm here now aren't I? Anything you need I'm here for you. I promised you that when I asked you to marry me. Is your lower back still bothering you?"

Deanna nodded her head yes and moved slightly in her spot where she was seated on floor.

"The pain was coming and going, but now it's steady and becoming stronger."

Will leapt to his feet and grabbed for Deanna's extra set of clothes that she would need to leave Sickbay in after their daughter was born and rushed for the door. He stopped halfway out the door when Deanna called out for him.

"Aren't you forgetting someone?"

A look of guilt crossed his face and he rushed back to his wife, helping her to her feet.

"Sweetheart I'm so sorry, my brain is in overdrive right now. Up you go. That's it. Take your time."

She glared at him as they entered the hallway.  
>"You realize this is your fault don't you Will?"<p>

He looked his wife square in the eye and swallowed. _Is it really my fault? _But in the back of his mind, Will knew it wasn't his fault, it was the pain that was talking. This was going to be a long night. When they got to Sickbay, Deanna blurted the same sentence out again.

"This is your fault Will…"

Bev only smiled good-naturedly at the pair and helped them over to a bed.

"That's the pain talking Will. Besides, you will probably hear a lot worse before this is all over. Believe me."

Will gave a nervous laugh and helped his wife up onto a bio-bed.

"It won't be so bad."

Bev gave a small snort and shook her head hiding a smile.

"You have no idea Will."

His face paled at the mere tone of her last sentence.

"Then again, maybe I don't."

A/N: What'd you guys think? Let me know! Thanks! Should I continue with one more chapter? Or leave it?


	2. Chapter 2: Unsure of the Uknown

**Chapter 2: Unsure of the Unknown**

Author: ZeusFluff.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Star Trek characters. But I do own: Susan. Date Started: 11/25/14. Date Finished: 2/6/15. Hope you will all enjoy! Thanks!

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><p>"Why did you do this to me!? Why!?"<p>

Will had already dodged a few things Deanna had thrown in his general direction, and they had not so gracefully hit the carpeted deck plating below him. He needed a counter-move for this situation.

"We made Susan together sweetheart… I'm right here. Scream all you like. But please, no more throwing things at me?"

With the contraction now coming to a head and subsiding, Deanna was finally able to catch her breath, albeit a bit ragged.

"I'm sorry Imzadi, but it really hurts!"

Riker nodded his head in understanding, he'd take her pain if he could, but it wasn't possible.

"I know it does sweetheart, this isn't how you imagined it would feel like is it?"

Will was there for his wife. Even though he was very scared, he knew that she was strong and she would bring their daughter Susan into the world.

"Not exactly. I thought it would be painless. I was wrong. What should we tell Susan about her older brother?"

Riker stroked his beard with his left hand and held onto Troi's with his right in the most comforting gesture he could give at the moment.

"What would you like to tell her about her brother? I know that he was everything like his mother. I only wish I knew more about him."

Deanna gave Riker's hand a squeeze and looked up at the ceiling with tears threatening to come down her cheeks once again.

"He was a miniature version of me. I didn't understand how I raised him alone. He was just beginning to ask who his father was. I couldn't bring myself to tell him he had no father. The more he asked, the more my mind went to you. He could sense everything I could. But it wasn't as if you weren't around. In my mind, you were always by my side."

Will placed a soft kiss to her forehead.

"Well you don't have to worry anymore. I'm here now."

He watched as his wife gripped his hand once more in a grasp that he was sure would snap a tree in two.

"It's alright, I'm right here. Just keep breathing through the pain. Do you remember when we took that last trip to Risa? Or the trip before that to Angel Falls in Venezuela?"

Deanna smiled through her tears and reached into her mind for the best memory from their vacation to Angel Falls.

"I remember it was raining on the 3rd day we were at Angel Falls. You'd said you wanted to go swimming. You said the moonlight made my hair glow. Will hold me, please hold me."

Kissing her hair, Will stroked some more out of her face and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

"It's alright sweetheart. I'm right here. I'm your oak tree remember?"

Deanna smiled through the pain for a moment and it took some effort to speak this time.

"I know… Can you give me… A back massage…?"

Will nodded his head yes and started working his magic with his hands on her lower back.

"There, does that help?"

Deanna nodded her head yes and sighed, the contraction finally coming back down. Will saw her wince momentarily and stopped what he was doing.

"I don't know… Bev…?"

Bev came over towards the couple and looked Deanna straight in the eye.

"What's wrong? Do you feel the need to push? Did your water break?"

Troi shook her head and looked down at herself, she couldn't see anything.

"I think maybe the baby turned. Shouldn't I be feeling her head dropping down by now?"

Crusher scanned Deanna with a tricorder and frowned.

"Now that shouldn't be _there."_

Swallowing, Riker looked to the screen on the wall just behind him.

"What is it?"

Now it was Bev's turn to swallow, and she looked at the screen carefully.

"Susan is trying to come out back-first. Her back and her left knee are trying to come out at the same time. I have to turn her so that her head is downwards. Will I need you to hold Deanna's legs. Pull them back as far as you can get them. The position she is in right now, it's compressing her spinal column."

Will's eyes grew wider as he watched the screen. Inwardly, he winced as he saw his daughter being rotated into the correct position.

"H-how can you see her?"

Bev kept her eyes on the screen while her hands did the rest of the work.

"My tricorder is feeding the information to the computer screen on the wall. The reason why I asked for you to hold Deanna's legs is because it opens up the birth canal a little more."

Will didn't like seeing Deanna cry, and so he held onto her tighter.

"It's alright Imzadi, we're almost finished. I've got you."

Riker could tell that the position in which he was holding his wife's legs was bothering her hips. He looked to Bev for a little confirmation to put Deanna back into a more comfortable position. She nodded and helped Will get Deanna back into a more comfortable spot on the bed. Deanna continued to a cry and glared at Riker. Then her second round of screaming began.

"_I hate you! I hate that you've done this to me!? _Just get her out of me already!?"

Will knew that this time even if his wife's words sounded hurtful towards him, she didn't mean them. The pain was getting very intense, so intense, he could swear it was starting to affect him. A sharp stabbing pain in his stomach startled him, and he grabbed for it with his left hand.

"Ah!"

Bev looked at him curiously and furrowed her eyebrows.

"What's wrong Will?"

His face was pale, and his breathing became ragged as a contraction began to wind up in his wife.

"I don't know, but my stomach really hurts…"

Crusher had Will lie down on a bio-bed next to the one Deanna was on and began to scan him.

"Where's the pain exactly? Does it hurt when I press down here?"

Shaking her head, she scanned Riker from head to toe, finding nothing, she seemed puzzled for a fraction of a moment.

"Well, it's not your appendix, or your spleen. Everything I've scanned for isn't there. I can only guess that you are going through sympathy pains as Deanna's goes through the birthing process. Wait a minute. I think the two of you are somehow attached to each other. Kind of like a telepathic umbilical cord. What one feels, so does the other. Amazing. I can give you something for the pain. Deanna needs to be lying in a comfortable position. She's not going to like it, but I'll need you to hold her legs again when it's time.

This is already proving to be a difficult labor. She simply isn't having a successful and easy labor like she had with her son. I read the reports about what happened during his birth. It was virtually painless for both of them. It still amazes me reading that report. I need you to keep her calm, in the meantime, I can give you something to block the pain in your stomach. Aren't you glad now that I got the two of you a private room? This could get a little messy. She's very scared. I need you to keep her calm, she needs to concentrate on bringing Susan into this world. Help her Will. There, you should start feeling better now."

Will started to instantly feel better. He knew he had to be there for his wife. Grabbing for Deanna's hand, he shushed her once more.

"Imzadi, I'm here. I won't leave you, I promise."

Bev kept an eye on the monitors and gave Deanna's hand a squeeze.

"You are getting close, another couple of centimeters and Susan will be ready to come greet the world. You rest up."

It was 30 minutes before Deanna called for Bev once more. She didn't sound panicked, but the pain and the contraction was building up again.

"Bev this is it this time. Can you get her out?"

Nodding, Bev resumed her place in front of Deanna and gave her a reassuring smile.

"Don't you worry Deanna, Susan will be here before you know it. Got her legs Will?"

Swallowing, he nodded and squeezed his wife's hand. Everything seemed to blur in the few minutes it took for their daughter to arrive. It wasn't until Bev spoke up over the screaming bundle of pink that was Susan.

"Congratulations you two, you have a healthy little girl. It's been awhile since I've seen a baby with this much hair on their head."

Neither parent was sure of the unknown, but they were going to face it together. It's what made them stronger. Alyssa helped Bev clean Susan up and brought her to her mother. Placing Susan into her mother's arms. Deanna let the tears flow freely.

"She's beautiful Will. She looks like you."

It was true, Will had once shown Deanna a baby picture of himself and their daughter was an exact copy of him.

"No. I think the eyebrows are all yours Imzadi."

Troi's mind wandered to the lone box in the couples shared closet.

"I've got just the thing for her from Ian's box."

Will looked at her with sympathetic eyes and then smiled at his daughter.

"His blanket. That should help keep her warm."

The couple marveled over Susan's tiny features.

"I don't know why we waited so long to do this. I guess we just weren't ready. Welcome aboard the Enterprise Susan."

To Be Continued…

A/N: So how was it?


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